Israeli minister proposes bill to abolish KAN, Israel's public broadcaster

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and MK Tally Gotliv (both Likud) plan to raise a bill at Sunday’s meeting of the ministerial legislation committee to privatize the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation, which broadcasts as Kan.

The aim of the bill is to privatize Kan by ending its public funding and transferring responsibility for operating its television and radio broadcasts to private owners within two years of the law being passed.

Opponents of the bill claim that it is intended to threaten the Public Broadcasting Corporation and is an attempt to silence an important voice.

Changes under the bill

If the bill passes, the board of the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation will have to present to the minister of communications, the minister of finance, and the Second Authority for Television and Radio, a list of the corporation’s assets. Under the bill, within a year of receiving the list, the Second Authority for Television and Radio will publish a tender to select a license for television broadcasts. Six months after that, the Second Authority for Television and Radio will announce its decision on the winner of the tender. If no winner is chosen, “the Public Broadcasting Corporation will cease to broadcast and will cease all activity connected to broadcasting within two years of this law coming into force.”

As far as radio is concerned, under the bill, all of the Public Broadcasting Corporation’s radio broadcasts will cease within two years of the bill becoming law, apart from the broadcasts of the Reshet Bet station (mainly news and current affairs). Within a year of receiving the Public Broadcasting Corporation’s list of assets, the Second Authority for Television and Radio will publish a tender for a national radio broadcasting licensee for that radio station. The bill states that the licensee will be allowed to broadcast advertising, sponsorships, and public service announcements.

The preamble to the bill states: “The Public Broadcasting Corporation’s budget comprises two sources: a government budget fixed by law and linked to the Consumer Price Index; and a budget based on collecting a vehicle radio fee. This budget amounts to NIS 800 million. This is a very high sum, and even those who believe in the importance of public broadcasting are taken aback by its size.”

The preamble also states that in an age of multi-channel television and widely accessible Internet, “the claim that public broadcasting is needed in order to provide a response to the multiculturalism that exists in Israel is no longer relevant.”

According to Karhi and Gotliv, abolishing public broadcasting in Israel will boost competition in the communications market and encourage a free market in that area,

This is not the first bill recently proposed dealing with communications or the Public Broadcasting Corporation. A few weeks ago, MK Shalom Danino (Likud) put forward a bill to set up a government-supervised rating board that will measure the ratings of television channels and present them in real time to viewers. It should be said that the technology for doing this does not exist at present.

In addition, MK Avichai Boaron (Likud) proposed a bill to subject the Public Broadcasting Corporation’s funding to the state budget, so that it could be cut in line with cuts to public spending generally during the war.

Several members of the Public Broadcasting Corporation board have recently come to the end of their terms, after these were not extended. Among them is chairperson Gil Omer.

Karhi posted on X: “From now, under the protection of the Attorney General and the High Court of Justice, the Corporation is operating without a board to oversee the waste of public money and this shocking content. Otiose and biased news and current affairs and a waste of public money — not with us. Soon, with God’s help.”

Karhi has spoken in the past against the Public Broadcasting Corporation and in favor of shutting it down. Last time around, however, when the country was caught up in the storm over the changes to the justice system promoted by the government, he did not have a majority in the coalition, and had to give up. He is now returning to the move.

The Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation said in a statement: “The orchestrated outburst of legislative attempts against the Public Broadcasting Corporation and the fake news spread by elements in the television market who have an interest in the closure of the Corporation and in gaining control of its public funding will not deter us from continuing to do our professional journalistic work without fear or favor.”

The Campaign for Original Content stated: “In this complicated time for the State of Israel, a time when the public needs a refuge and an uplifting spirit, right at this time Shlomo Karhi is working with all his might, together with Likud Knesset members Gotliv, Boaron and others, to eliminate the Corporation. As MK Matan Kahana put it, ‘The Israeli people have still not begun the healing process from a hard year of war, and instead of calming and unifying, the minister proposes to pour a barrel of gasoline on the bonfire of divisiveness and incitement.’

“We call on all the public’s elected representatives to oppose these measures, and we shall be there to fight all the plans of Karhi and his friends, at all times and places, and to call on him to start to work for the benefit of the content and communications market in Israel, instead of trying to destroy it.”